Purple Rose
by PepperGabEm12
Summary: It's five years after Garry and Ib escaped Guertena's exhibit and Ib is still haunted by the memories of the gallery. But when Garry convinces her to visit a new gallery that has nothing to do with the famous artist will it really end up as a normal visit this time?
1. A New Beginning

**OH MY GOSH HERE IT IS! I am soooooo excited for this new story and I hope you all will love it too! And when I had said in my one-shot that I didn't want to steal someone else's idea, I scrolled through the stories and couldn't find that story and while Dewi-Michelle had suggested giving that person credit, like I said I couldn't find the story and I realized mine was only similar in the basic idea anyway, so it's not stealing. Anyway, enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ib; only the story is mine**

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A cool breeze started to stir and I shrugged my shoulders up to my ears to try and block out the cold. My pull over sweater wasn't proving to do much to protect me from the biting wind making me debate about heading home. The tights were proving to be even less effective for keeping me warm, but I was still glad I had chosen to wear them under my maroon pleated skirt. Even though school had let out ages ago and everyone else had returned home long ago I remained on the property wandering around the building sprawled out in a field. It was surrounded by a forest making for some beautiful scenery around the building that I would end up staring at all through class.

Most people thought I was the artist type, but I hadn't drawn for five years...since the incident with the art gallery. I had never really had a knack for drawing before so giving it up altogether hadn't proven to be that difficult. Ever since I had been transported to that nightmare in the gallery I had done my best to avoid drawings or paintings or sculptures or anything of the sort at all costs. I always started panicking a little whenever I was near one expecting the world around me to shift back into that living hell and that was something I never wanted to go through again.

My brown hair that I hadn't let grow any longer since I was ten decided to obscure my view of the path in front of me as the wind picked up instantly changing directions. I wasn't accident prone or anything like that, but with my hair being annoying like this I was bound to trip over something. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket to see that it was four 'o'clock as I let out a gasp of surprise.

"I'm gonna be late!" I pointed out the obvious to myself as I whipped around and started sprinting in the direction of home.

The guilt of not telling my parents the full truth started to rise up in my gut again as my feet pounded rhythmically along the sidewalk. I knew there was no way I could tell them the truth as they would never in a million years be okay with it but that didn't mean I enjoyed lying to them. Whenever I went out they thought I was doing a project for school or at the library studying, neither of those scenarios ever being true. Thinking about what I was really doing caused the excitement to bubble up in me once again and I actually had to suppress a giggle. It wasn't that hard to fight back though as I reminded myself my feelings were completely one sided and anyway it was just plain wrong of me to love him. If anyone found out about my secret I was pretty sure I would die from mortification as there wasn't a single person in the world who would be okay with who I loved; not even the person I loved would accept it.

I shook my head to free it of these thoughts as I reached the front door of my house stopping to regain composure and make it look like I hadn't just been running for my life before I entered the house. "Mom, Dad, I'm home!"

"Ib I was beginning to wonder where you were!" My mother called from the kitchen. She stuck her head out into the hall to give me a smile as she continued, "What kept you so long, sweetie?"

"I hadn't planned on staying that long, but just the way the overcast sky looked over the school grounds was just mesmerizing to me and I couldn't help but stop to appreciate it." I was glad I was at least able to tell the complete truth in this case. Lying seemed to be something that was starting to become more common and easier and that was starting to worry me. "I won't be staying home long either though. I have a huge test I have to study for tomorrow so I was going to head off to the library to get some peace and quiet," I added trotting down the hall to my room to set down my school bag.

My mom was standing in the doorway as I spun around to exit, blocking my only means of escape. "Can't you stay home and study for once? I know you don't always go out, but it looks miserable out there and I can't stand the thought of my little girl out there in such dreadful weather," my mother begged poking her bottom lip out in a pout.

Grabbing my messenger bag and filling it with a few textbooks to make it look like I really was studying, I argued, "But I don't want to ask you and Dad to be quiet and it's really helpful to study at the library. They have the internet and books to help me figure things out that I otherwise wouldn't be able to at home." I knew I had her with that argument just like I had every other time I'd had to fight my way out the door.

With a sigh she reluctantly agreed to let me go taking a step out of the doorway to signal that I had free passage once again.

I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before racing back out into the cold world making a beeline straight for the cafe. It was our usual spot thankfully only being about five minutes from my house so that when I was running late like this it wouldn't take me long to get there. I slowed to a stop as I saw the building come into view and fixed my bangs and clothes making sure I didn't look like I had just gone through a hurricane even though it kinda felt like I had as the wind was still blowing like crazy. Pushing the door open I was greeted with the usual blast of warm air as my eyes went straight to the table in the corner where I knew he would be waiting.

Garry was staring out the window his hair covering his eye that was facing me like it had since I first met him making it impossible for me to see what he was thinking. While they obviously weren't the exact same clothes he was wearing clothes very similar to what he had worn five years ago, but that was just like him to not really change much about himself. I wasn't one to talk though as I had hardly changed anything about my appearance as well.

It was like he could sense my presence because in that instant he turned to face me and his face lit up in a small causing my heart to beat just a few clicks faster. I didn't waste any time in making my way back to the table as I slid into the chair opposite him. "Sorry I was late; I was wandering around school and lost track of the time." My cheeks reddened slightly as I apologized taking a sip water to regain composure.

"I knew you would come so don't worry about it. You weren't _that _late anyway," Garry assured like he always did whenever I was late. He was twenty three now, but his voice still wasn't that deep and gruff sounding. As if on autopilot he popped a piece of candy into his mouth as he was still struggling with trying to quit smoking. I felt bad for him as I knew it was hard to quit smoking and it was something he was determined to do no matter what, but he was still struggling with it.

The waitress came by with our usual order of macaroons and green tea for both of us. I wrapped my hands around the mug choosing to just let the heat from it warm the outside of me up first before even thinking about drinking it. "So anything new and exciting to tell me?"

Hurriedly swallowing his bite of macaroon he started, "Actually I do have something I want to tell you. It's more of an idea really and before you say no I want you to hear me out and then make your final decision." Taking a deep breath to center himself he continued, "I know you hate going to art galleries and everything, but a new gallery opened up downtown and I think it might be a good idea for you to go. Before you say anything you know I would never in a million years force you to do anything you don't want to, but I really think it might help you if you visited one that didn't have any...weird memories attached to it. They don't have anything by Guertena and I'll be with you the whole time."

Once he finished his proposal I could only seem to stare at him. The idea of going to a place like that terrified me to the bone, but I knew how much he loved drawing and had always wanted to show me his drawings. He never did show them to me though as he knew I would freak out. He was always taking my feelings into account and even though he had been trying to quit smoking before it had only been a half hearted attempt; after he met me though he was determined to quit because he was once again thinking about my health safety. How I could sit here and claim I loved him when he had given up so much for me yet I hadn't done anything in return for him? "Garry...I think I want to give it a try," I whispered the words surprising me as I hadn't actually meant to say it out loud.

"Really?!" Garry's face lit up like a little boy's at Christmas and I felt my heart start beating a million times faster again at his shining face. "When do you want to go?" He could barely contain his excitement in his voice as he ate another macaroon his eyes glued to my face as he waited for my answer.

"How does tomorrow sound?" I didn't have school and if I delayed the trip too long it was very possible that I would chicken out and there was no way I was going to disappoint him. "Ten o'clock?" I suggested the time to which he enthusiastically agreed and I could help but laugh lightly at his antics.

It was a lot easier to meet up now since I was fifteen and actually looked closer to his age then I had before. When we were younger we would just tell people that we were siblings whenever we went out to make sure no one tried to call the cops and call Garry a pedophile as no one would believe the story of us being friends. It didn't matter though because as much as I wished he loved me in a romantic way I was pretty sure he saw me as a little sister.

The rest of our meeting flew by like it always did and I felt a twinge of sadness as it was time for us to part ways. He ruffled my hair like he always did before making his way to his car to head to his downtown apartment like always. I felt bad that he felt guilty about not being able to give me a ride and forcing me to walk all the time, but I didn't mind the walking. True I wished he could give me a ride so that we could spend more time together, but that would've been a stupid idea to do that as my parents would definitely find out about him then.

At home I went through the motions of eating dinner and taking a bath as dread slowly started to creep into me at the thought of facing my fears tomorrow. I always took a bath instead of a shower when I was in a thinking mood as it gave me more time to think about things before having to go to bed. I was glad that I had been able to talk myself into giving this a try to attempt to get over my fear, but at the same time I wasn't looking forward to facing my fears. After the whole terrifying experience at the gallery it had proven a lot harder for me to hide my fear as all those horrifying sights had finally gotten to me and made me crack. I was just glad that I had found Garry and we had managed to remember each other back here in the real world. If I would've lost him I'm not sure what I would've done with myself. Wanting to make sure I got enough sleep for tomorrow I retired to bed early curling up under the covers into a tight ball as the sound of the wind howling through the air distracted me long enough to push back the dread, letting me drift off into sleep.


	2. Bad Premonitions

**These are turning out to be long chapters, which isn't a bad thing, but it kinda sucks, cause I'm trying to make sure they don't drag on too long. If you think it'd be okay for them to go longer or you think they're fine in length, I guess you can leave it in a review or PM me. I dun even really know if length is an issue here XDD**

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Rain pounded on the rooftop waking me up in a slow, drowsy way. I rolled over burying my head under the covers seeing as it was a Saturday and I therefore had no reason to get up early. That is, until I remembered that I was meeting Garry today. The second that thought entered my brain I shot out of bed like a rocket almost flying right into my closet door.

For the first time since I could remember I actually surveyed my clothes and took my time choosing something to wear. I didn't want to wear clothes that would make him think I was a little kid, but something too sexy was definitely a big N-O. Finally, I settled on dark green plaid skirt, black tights, my ballet flats, and a quarter length sleeve dark blue u-neck shirt with three buttons that didn't serve much purpose on the front. Outfit chosen I ripped a brush through my tangled hair having to fight back the tears of pain with each knot I hit.

"Ib, is that you making all that noise?" Mom's voice called out softly from the other side of my door and I felt my heart stop right then and there.

The thought hadn't crossed my mind about how I was going to explain away this all day trip to my parents and now I was faced with the moment without having any preparation. "Y-Yeah, I'm up…" my voice trailed off pathetically as I wasn't really sure what to add. Smoothing down my hair one last time to make sure it co-operated, I took a deep breath and marched over to my door. I was hoping I could psych myself out in believing that I was confident and ready to give a completely believable lie. "I was actually going to head out for the day. I ran into a few friends from school yesterday and they suggested that we hang out downtown today and I forgot to mention it too you last night." I slapped on a sheepish smile to give the finishing touch to my story hoping she wouldn't insist on getting contact info or going with me.

"Oh sweetie that's wonderful! I'll admit I was worried that it seemed like you were spending all of your time alone, but obviously I was worrying over nothing," she gushed a huge smile lighting up her face like a Christmas tree. "Now, I'm trusting you to be smart and safe all right? Downtown can be a very dangerous place for a beautiful girl like yourself, so if anything goes wrong you call me or your father _immediately_."

"Thank you so much for letting me go!" My body moved of it's own accord as I threw my arms around in her in a tight hug excitement swelling up inside me once again. "I'm gonna be late if I don't leave now, so I'll see you later tonight, love you, bye!" I called over my shoulder as I hurried down the stairs feeling light as air.

I was thankfully able to stop myself from rushing out into the torrential downpour long enough to stop and grab a pull over sweatshirt and an umbrella. As stormy as it seemed there wasn't any wind, so the rain wouldn't be angled and able to come under the umbrella. We had agreed on meeting at the cafe to once again make sure we didn't have to explain anything to my parents; one look at the driver and they would know he wasn't close to being in the same grade as me.

Alone with my thoughts I started to have a mini freak out about spending the day with him. Not to mention there was what was going to be at least an hour long car ride to reach downtown thanks to the rain. Yes we always hung out alone, but this scenario would be different as it could actually be considered a date. There was also the fact that I was getting ready to face one of my biggest fears: an art gallery.

While he had said there was nothing to do with Guertena here I was still terrified of something horrible happening to us again by visiting the place. "Mary's gone, so there's nothing to worry about," I whispered under my breath trying to give myself a pep talk. It wasn't proving to work very well as I was still freaking out when I had made it to the cafe. By that time the rain had eased up to a light rain and I stepped under the awning to shake out my umbrella and collapse it. Normally I would've been on guard in an instant with a car pulling to a stop in front of me, but when I saw the mess of dark purple hair I walked right up to the car and climbed right in.

"You weren't waiting too long, were you?" Garry asked real concern obvious in his voice.

My cheeks were dusted a light red from his concern and I focused on putting my seatbelt on as I answered, "I just got here maybe a minute ago, so it wasn't that long." There was one of those car fresheners clipped onto the air vent, but I could still detect the faint smell of old cigarettes and the lemon scent of the candy he was always eating.

After a few seconds of us sitting in silence with the car not moving an inch, I was about to ask what was wrong when he started, "Are you sure you want to do this? I know how much art galleries freak you out and you don't have to force yourself to do this."

"Garry, I really want to do this. It's pretty ridiculous of me to be so scared of paintings and sculptures and galleries and...I want to get over it." What I really wanted to say was that I owed him this after all the things he had done for me, but of course my courage left the building at the last second and I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. I looked him in the eye to show him how sincere I was and apparently it was enough to convince him as he gave me a small smile, ruffled my hair, and started the car.

With that bridge crossed I was now back to the feeling awkward being alone in the car with him. It had been different to be alone with him in the art gallery as at the time I hadn't had feelings for him and I was younger so the truth of the situation hadn't dawned on me. As the world flew by outside the window I couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't sound stupid and had to suffer in silence as he apparently couldn't think of anything to say either. "...How exactly did you hear about this place?" It seemed like a good topic and he hadn't mentioned just how he had heard about it.

"Well they apparently heard about my work and...offered to check out my paintings to see if they wanted to display anything." Garry was squirming uncomfortably unable to look at me as he always felt weird talking about himself.

"Garry, that's great! Why didn't you tell me?!" I stuck my hands on my hips giving him the sternest look I could muster.

"They didn't even say they would for sure display anything of mine, so it's not really that big a deal," he shrugged off the whole thing as we pulled up to a red light the rhythmic sound of the wiper blades sweeping back and forth across the windshield the only thing breaking the silence.

I leaned my head back against the seat staring out the window at the gray world that was oddly appealing to me. I wasn't sure why, but I loved overcast days over bright and sunny ones. Maybe it just fit my quiet personality better so I felt more connected to it. With traffic crawling slower than a snail we started talking about anything we could think of to pass the time and before I knew it I was staring at backside of my eyelids.

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When the silence stretched on for a few minutes I looked over to see Ib was curled up in the passenger seat sound asleep. As sick as it was I couldn't suppress the thought that she looked adorable. I was a twenty three year old man in love with a fifteen year old girl. Something was clearly wrong with me.

A shiver passed through her and seeing as traffic was at a standstill at the moment it was safe for me to remove my jacket and lay it over her. I brushed her hair behind her ear as I this while she, what I presumed to be unconsciously, tucked the jacket under her chin curling up into an even smaller ball in the passenger seat. "Maybe one day…" I gave a snort at the stupid thought that I could _ever_ tell her how I felt.

Needing something else to focus on I turned my thoughts to the art gallery praying that I wasn't making a huge mistake in taking her there. As selfish as it was I wanted to be the one who helped her overcome her fear and I wanted so badly to be able to share my artwork with her. And I hated the idea of anything terrifying her the way art of any kind did.

It felt like years had passed by the time we pulled into downtown when in actuality it had been an hour, Ib sleeping peacefully through it all. I reached and gently shook her shoulder coaxing, "Ib, we're here. Time to wake up."

* * *

I must've still been dreaming as I heard Garry's voice calling to me to wake up and someone was lightly shaking my shoulder. "No, I'm comfortable," I whined turning my head to bury my face in whatever it was I was laying on.

Garry's voice gave a light chuckle as he insisted, "I don't think a car is all that comfortable for sleeping in."

That's when it hit me just where I was and who I was with and I was acting like a three year old fighting her mom to stay in bed. My eyes shot open and I sat bolt right up looking around to see that we were parked in a free parking zone downtown. "When did we get here?"

"You were lucky and slept through the world's longest ride to make it here, but we've only been here for a few minutes," Garry answered smirking at my reaction.

Another blush adorned my face as I looked down at myself to see that his coat was covering me like a blanket. "Ah, here's your coat back." I handed it to him before unbuckling myself doing my best to hide the fact that my hands wouldn't stop shaking. After making sure the car was locked and he had got his coat back on, we ascended the stone steps up to the museum, an unsettling feeling lodging itself firmly in the pit of my stomach.


	3. It Begins

**ugh I feel so bad that this was a shorter chapter, but with work being crazy since it's almost Christmas and I've been hanging out with someone recently ( I know, shocker that I'm actually making any sort of contact with real people XDD) that I haven't been able to get this chapter out and I wanted to get it out ASAP for you guys. I promise that I will go back to making longer chapters! **

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"Ib, are you sure you want to do this?" Garry was bent over at the waist so he could look me straight in the eyes leaving no chance of lying.

Swallowing past the huge lump in my throat, I forced the words past my lips, "I can't just let myself be run by fear for the rest of my life." People were always telling me that acted more like an adult than a teenager, but I wasn't sure if they were trying to insult me or compliment me or just pointing out that small fact. At the moment though it felt like I was a little child with the stupidest fears. I didn't let my gaze falter praying that Garry wouldn't change his mind.

After a few more seconds he let out an exhausted sigh, saying, "We'll continue, but if you show _any_ sign that this is too much we're leaving _immediately_." He headed over to the front counter and started speaking to the man behind the desk.

Even though I refused to go anywhere without Garry considering what happened last time I had wandered off by myself, I settled for staring around at the paintings. None of them were supposed to by by Guertena, but it was hard to tell if any of it was made by different people. It wasn't that I was uncultured; it was just that all these pieces of work looked to be along the same lines as the things he made.

"All right...I checked with the manager and he said there wasn't anything made by Guertena here like I had thought so everything will be fine." Even With Garry's encouraging smile and hair ruffling there was still the horrible feeling lodged in the pit of my stomach.

I could only seem to nod my head and when he started to say something I hurriedly put a smile on my face assuring him that I was fine. We headed off to the first exhibit as I counted to ten and took deep, even breaths. As freaked out as I was I was not about to let myself have a panic attack in front of a bunch of strangers or Garry for that matter.

People were milling around by themselves, with groups of friends, or with their date helping me convince myself that everything was fine. The room that was the most empty was the one we decided to visit first: the room with the sculptures. There were only about ten other people in the large room and it made for us not being completely alone, but still having space to ourselves. We stopped in front of a huge sculpture that I honestly had no idea what it was supposed to be. A giant blob made the base while thin and thick lines squiggled their way around making arches and curling designs all around the center piece, which appeared to be some kind of sword looking thing. I furrowed my brow as I leaned a little closer to the name piece seeing that the title was written in kanji I hadn't yet learned. _Five years older and I still can't read anything in a stupid museum. _"Am I the only one missing the point of this piece?" Out of the corner of my eye I could see Garry staring hard at the piece of art while he made small mumbling noises and nodded his head slightly like he was trying to figure out the piece of art for himself. At least someone was getting enjoyment out of all this. Still not feeling the slightest bit comfortable being too far away from him, I turned around and leaned against the velvet red rope letting my gaze travel over the other sculptures in the room. This trip was turning out to be the worst decision of my life for myself, but at least Garry was happy and I was finally doing something for his sake instead of being selfish.

Just as I started swinging slightly on the rope my body relaxing finally something cold and hard wrapped itself around my waist and yanked my in the air. A scream ripped from my throat was I was staring down at the floor and Garry who looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "_IB!_"

I tried to call out to him, but the the sculpture was squeezing the air out of my lungs as blackness danced on the edges of my vision. Suddenly, I was rushing towards the floor on my back and I could only stare up my eyes filled with terror, letting out a silent scream as I watched Garry and the normal world disappear as I was being pulled down into pure darkness.


	4. Alone

**...whoops. so much for making this longer. Darn holiday season eating up all my time so I haven't been able to sit down and write. Well it's here now and I will be starting college on the sixth, so that might take a little more of my time up, but don't worry I will get back to updating much more regularly starting now. **

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My body felt like I had been hit by a truck while I still felt like I wasn't getting enough air in my lungs. I scrunched up a little keeping my eyes glue shot as I regained consciousness on what felt like carpeted floor. I remembered exactly what had happened before I had passed out and I didn't want to see where I was. Tears pricked the back of my eyes as I laid there becoming more and more aware of the fact that one of my worst fears had come true: I was stuck in another dimension thanks to an art gallery.

And the worst part of it all was that this time I was completely alone.

There was no way Garry could've followed me and even if the other people in the room had noticed what was happening it wasn't like they could do anything. I was stuck here completely alone and terrified. The tears started flowing freely and I couldn't suppress the sobs and shudders that came along with the waterfall of tears. Really laying on the ground crying my eyes out wasn't the best idea as I had no clue as to what could be around me, but at the same time I wasn't really in the mood for caring.

"I can't do this again; not alone, I can't do this alone!" I tucked my head in as I curled up into a tight ball letting my hair block out the light so that I wouldn't be disturbed. After a few minutes of this something clicked in my brain and I lightly smacked myself to try and calm myself. "Ib, stop it. You need to get out of here and sitting here crying like a baby is going to guarantee that you'll never get home and see the people you love again." Giving myself the mental pep talk, I forced myself into a sitting position, took a deep breath, and slowly opened my eyes.

Gazing around the room I could see that it was dimly lit with there being not much to look at. There was a desk shoved into the corner with a lamp on it, a worn brown notebook lying beside it. As for the walls there was nothing on them; the paint was chipping slightly in places but that was it.

"At least it appears that I'm not in the same place at least," I muttered to myself trying to find any bit of good news that I could. I stood up adjusting my skirt since it was sitting weird because of my laying down. It felt like this was the same as last time, but there were already so many different things it felt like I was having to relearn all the rules to survive and that did not sit well with me.

Having calmed down enough that I had stopped crying I saw that there were two doors in front of me: one red and one blue. "I already have to make a choice? That's lovely."

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**I will admit I started typing this without formulating my ideas first and that was probably a very bad choice on my part XDDD. Review and I will love you forever!**


	5. Unexpected Guest

**Next chapter here it is! And yes I have seen people saying they want longer chapters and have no fear it was my plan all along to go back to the longer ones. This one is admittedly still a little shorter than the first two, but it's longer so have no fear!**

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The blue and red door both sat there waiting for me to choose between the two of them. If I could have things my ways, personally I would've made a door that clearly stated 'this way back to your normal life', but apparently whoever made this place wasn't on the same level of thinking as I was. I tried to think through any kind of symbolism I could to figure out which door would be the correct one which lead me to the obvious red is bad which _then _lead me to the idea that it could be a trick as that was way too obvious and it was actually the red door I wanted to go through. "There really is no easy way out of this," I muttered with a sigh. Thinking about it more there was also the possibility that it didn't matter which door I went through: both of them could lead to something horrible just different.

I knew standing here for the rest of my life debating the issue wasn't really doing me much good, but it appeared as though I was going to have plenty of time to think this out. Nothing was attacking me, so I was going to be careful.

Just when I let this relief sink in the sound of something pounding on the wall made me snap my head to the left to see what was going on. It was as though an invisible hand was stamping the letters onto the wall with something that looked an awful lot like blood as the words appeared:

Better be careful to not get hurt

With that lovely sentiment I made my way slowly over to the doors never letting my eyes look away from the words. I reached out with my hand to feel for the door and felt relief rush through me as I felt the cool touch of the knob in my grasp. Not bothering to see which door it was I turned the knob and leaned my weight against it slamming the door behind me with my eyes still glued to where the spot where the words would be in the other room.

It finally clicked in my brain that I was staring at the blue door and I wasn't sure how I felt about that. One thing I did know was that I did not want to turn around.

"Ib?!"

The one thing that could make me turn around came alive as I heard Garry's worried voice behind me. I spun around a smile breaking across my face and tears of joy pricking the back of my eyes. My euphoria was cut short though as I pressed myself against the door when I saw who was behind me.

"Did you really think he would be here?" Mary sneered turning to inspect her nails like they were the most important thing in the world.

I couldn't believe I was really staring at her face to face once again. She looked the exact same as before which didn't really surprise me; her being a painting obviously meant that she couldn't age. "How...how are you…" My voice was coming out as a hoarse whisper my mouth unable to form a coherent sentence.

With a dramatic roll of her eyes she let her hand flop by her side saying, "Oh would you quit freaking out already? I'm serious when I say I don't know what's going on this time and that I'm as much of a victim as you are."

Balling my hands into tight fists by my sides to stop them from shaking I found my voice, "You really expect me to believe you?"

"Yes because it's the truth. You should know considering you _burned me _and therefore I shouldn't even exist let alone be able to transport you to another dimension again. And I won't expect any apology for that by the way," she added the last part with a too bright smile. "I just can't believe how easy you are to trick; last time at least you were able to keep your cool and even used your brain to think rationally." Without warning she started wandering around the room never really looking at me as she continued on, "You really do care about that Garry guy though don't you? I was about ready to throw up it was so disgusting seeing how happy you were when you heard what you thought was him."

I wasn't really paying attention to her anymore as I let my own eyes wander around the room to take stock of my current situation. This room had paintings set along the walls at distinct intervals all of them being weird, abstract paintings that still didn't make much sense to me. There was a pedestal in the center of the room that held an empty vase filling me up with instant worry. "Was there a rose in that vase?"

Mary stopped her wandering and whipped around to look at me. She followed my shaky pointing finger to the center and purred, "Ah there was a rose in there. Before you go freaking out though there was only a yellow one and clearly yellow is not your color." Before I could argue with her she pulled a beautiful rose out of her pocket each of it's petals looking velvet and dainty like any real rose. There were only five petals on it seeing as she was still a child, but it still looked as though the rose had a million petals on it like it really should have.

The warning from the other room popped back into my head and that just made me feel even more frantic. "I need to find my rose!" The thought of it sitting out in the open where anything could easily take it and kill me without it without my knowledge horrified me and I knew I had to find it before I even thought about doing anything else.

"Well good luck finding it, cause I have no idea where it is. I was lucky and just appeared in this room with my rose sitting right there waiting for me," Mary stated nonchalantly obviously not caring if anything happened to me.

"You aren't going to help me?" I asked not believing that she had truly changed so much.

She snorted ungracefully while she lashed out, "Why should I help you?! You abandoned me even though all I wanted was a friend; _you burned me alive_ and didn't even feel a thing about it while you just watched me whither away all alone!"

I opened my mouth to argue, but simply let it shut without saying anything. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, that she was the one who should be apologizing for almost killing Garry and trying to trap me in that horrible place. The way she described everything I did though put the whole situation into a new perspective that I didn't like. "Well...you're here now."

"Oh yeah cause I want to be stuck wherever here is!"

As much as I hated to admit, something in my gut was telling me that I would need her help to get out of here. My gut was never wrong, but it just had to be wrong this one time. I mean she was the one who started this whole mess in the first place and she was staring the whole nightmare over again except this time I was all alone! _But if you had never gone through that you would have never met Garry. _A little voice in my head broke through my storming emotions to add that little tidbit into the mess.

That was one thing I did owe her if anything else. "Mary...neither of us will get out of here alive if we try to go our separate ways. So, as much as we disagree...what do you say we make a truce to get out of here?" I held out my hand waiting for her answer.

Even though she was completely still I could see the turmoil in her eyes revealing just how hard she was having to think this whole thing through. The same way I had. Finally, she put one foot in front of the other till she was in front of me and hesitantly took my hand, giving a firm shake to show her resolve. "Alright; temporary truce to get out of here."

There was the feeling that this was the right choice and that I had made the worst decision in my life battling inside me as I gave her a tentative smile.

* * *

**Yeah I went there. Mary is here. BAM! Okay i'll shut up now. review and I will love you forever!**


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